Fez (Frank Stella)

Fez is the name of a series of artworks created by American artist Frank Stella. Part of his Protractor Series, which he began in 1967, the Fez works, like other pieces in the series, are characterized by their use of semi-circular and fan-shaped forms. Stella employed bright, industrial colors and geometric patterns to create these dynamic and often large-scale paintings.

The Protractor Series, including the Fez subset, marked a departure from Stella's earlier minimalist works, embracing a more baroque and flamboyant aesthetic. The titles of the paintings within the series, such as "Fez," often referenced ancient cities and historical sites around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, though these titles bear no direct representational relationship to the abstract imagery itself. The Fez paintings explore the interplay of shape, color, and space, challenging traditional notions of painting and sculpture. They represent a significant phase in Stella's career, contributing to his reputation as a leading figure in post-painterly abstraction and later, in three-dimensional constructions. The series explored themes of modularity and repetition, pushing the boundaries of what constituted a painting and paving the way for his subsequent explorations in relief and sculptural forms.